Indie Crossover/Cross Promotion/Pollination
An anti-Avengers Endgame
The past few days are getting a bit interesting. I’m seeing cameos and crossover appearances of various characters and brands. I don’t mean DC throwing their superheroes everywhere. Or IDW returning the favor with their licenses. Let alone crossing over with manga brands. Those are icons which obscure the smaller events.
Just before I wrote this post, this appeared in my feeds:
A lot of cameos from creator-owned brands turned truly indie.
The day before I got a notification from Tony Kittrell’s Kickstarter for a bigger crossover in Cosmos: War. Never expected to see the Savage Dragon brand in the same space as Mana Comics. But as a fan of those and an Advent Comics superbacker on GlobalComix, it’s got my attention. As much as one brand I found out is from the same era as Savage Dragon, but never went viral. And now he’s living as the ward of Winnie the Pooh commissions.
A bigger surprise was seeing Red Anvil Comics’ logo on there. I got their latest issue of War of the Independents from a convention a year or so back, so this is nothing short of ironic.
Alright, now I’m sure some of you are thinking:
Who are these people and why should we care they’re crossing over?
Indies and Creatowned: Meta-Networking
I care enough to recognize Red Hook and Captain Ultimate cameoing in Magma Comix’s The Pedestrian.
Now don’t get me wrong. This is not suggesting a bunch of superheroes making another universe. I almost saw that happen with Short Fuse Media and it fizzled out.
It’s just that it’s hard not to notice so many times characters and brands show up in other places.
I guess you could say it’s like a cohesive fragmentation. Where the cameo model becomes a mutual visibility engine. Sometimes it’s not even on comic pages but toylines that people forget. The kind of stuff that inspires curiosity to know more about a character you’re not too familiar with.
In function, it’s a guest star economy where creators reach out to each other. Rather than wait for creator-owned deals to pass through, they lend their characters out for a spot or two. It brings a sense of connectedness without any mandates.
This way they cross pollinate the fanbases they already got with each other just for fun…mostly. All without needing to commit to mandates or overhyping anything.
This isn’t exclusive to the USA either. In Mexico, the indie series Koatl: El Denfensor recently did a crossover with different Latin American superheroes from across South America.
Why This Works
Similar events can be seen throughout social media with artists and creators sharing their OCs. Some things just click with other people: the designs, the personalities they exude, and any excuse to showoff. Interacting with other characters or scenarios is a shared experience that gets more attention, no matter what.
Granted, the chances of making franchises or branded merchandise are minimal. But just having fun is it’s own reward. Especially if it encourages archiving for fans to get a gist of characters and scenarios.
I imagine that’s what it’s like with tabletop gaming a lot of the time.
Why Superheroes Stand Out
Superheroes seem to be designed for crossover appeal. There are more narrative intersections half of the time for wiggle room. Unlike a lot of fantasy and sci-fi which tend to have closed author-driven stories.
Plus for indie creators trying to get around, a little help from colleagues goes a long way.
But this probably has more to do with audiences than the makers.
Superhero comic fans like myself are more likely to be aware of how comics and their characters are marketed. Not to mention the nostalgia factor on some decades old material making a resurgence.
Lady Death and Shi for example are making regular appearances in places. And they’re only superhero adjacent with how they were marketed.
Besides it’s not like every superhero crosses over with another franchise. You don’t see any Super Sentai crossing over with Invincible. Let alone My Hero Academia with Jungle Juice.
Who knows, there are probably even more crossover/cross promos happening that nobody is really talking about.